Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has disclosed fresh evidence that a politician attempted to bribe acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun, the latest revelation in a string of high-profile graft scandals involving Ukraine’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytsky.
A video published by the TSN television channel late on April 6 shows Andriy Bohachyov, an aide to the controversial Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko, offering Suprun a new apartment. In exchange, he expects her to give expensive medical equipment purchased by international donors to a hospital in the city of Vyshneve, just southwest of Kyiv.
The video also shows Vyshneve mayor Ilya Dikov discussing the bribe with Suprun, and saying that she would be given an apartment from mayor’s “own personal assets.”
As part of the deal, Dikov brought Suprun to Vyshneve to show her the apartment, which was meant to be registered to Suprun’s aide, TSN reported.
However, according to NABU, Suprun appealed to law enforcement directly after being offered the bribe and then played along with Bohachyov’s proposal to help investigate the case.
On March 7, NABU searched Bohachyov and Dikov’s homes and offices. A week later, Suprun confirmed in a Facebook post that, over a year earlier, she was offered a bribe by a lawmaker’s aide and a city mayor, and that she immediately contacted the NABU investigators.
On March 14, after the searches and Suprun’s post, Radical Party leader Lyashko demanded that the Verkhovna Rada dismiss the acting health minister because of her dual U.S.-Ukrainian citizenship, which is technically not allowed under Ukrainian law. He also denounced all the accusations against Bohachyov, saying his aide was being persecuted for trying to generously provide complex medical equipment to a hospital.
Bohachov himself told TSN that he was not trying to bribe Suprun, but rather wanted to help her resolve her housing problems.
“I am an empathetic person, and I was bound to respond, just to help improve (Suprun’s) situation,” Lyashko’s aide said. “And because of this, they want to put me on trial.”
Suprun was offered an apartment in the Akvarel Two housing complex in Vyshneve, TSN reported. Both the Akvarel construction holding and mayor Dikov declined to comment on the case.
Oleksandra Ustynova, an activist with the Anti-Corruption Action Center, told TSN that that corrupt schemes surrounding medical equipment are common in Ukraine.
“Every time when medical equipment is purchased, everyone hypes it at first,” she said. “Then, the money for servicing the equipment gets split up. And the third stage of corruption that we observe is selling the equipment.”
“We all remember how extremely expensive equipment purchased for Okhmatdyt (Ukraine’s biggest child clinic, located in Kyiv) was later found in warehouses somewhere in Vinnytsya Oblast.”
Bohachyov and Dikov’s case came roaring back to public attention on April 4, when NABU released audio recordings from a bug planted in Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Kholodnytsky’s office. The recordings appeared to implicate Kholodnytsky in blocking or subverting investigations against powerful suspects.
In a March 1 recording, Kholodnytsky urged Serhiy Kaftya, deputy CEO of the Akvarel construction holding and a suspect in the case, to give false testimony and not reveal that Dikov demanded he allocate an apartment for Suprun.
Kholodnytsky also told Roman Symkiv, an anti-corruption prosecutor, that Kaftya is a friend of his and pressured the director of a Kyiv court and her deputy not to consider search motions in the case.
